nature

Flies everywhere; Tiger Moths; Moldy Warp; return of the Hedgehog; Gran the tennis star; avoiding the agonies of a guided tour; Cuckoos and Cowslips.

By April 13th 1948 many summer migrant birds (Cuckoos, Wood Warblers, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers) have been recorded in the local woods, and Gran is ecstatic about her lovely England in Spring. The weather has been warm, she notes on the 12th:

In the Park Road garden this afternoon there was a positive plague of flies, swarming everywhere, the gutters and front of the house black with them in parts, and all warm places like the edges of the frames, water-tap, shed doors and the grid over the water-cock were thickly covered. D.D.T. did not seem to deter them for long.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 15)

Blue Tits nest early; Gran does some cleaning but is easily distracted; “Hill 60”; the Downs are changing; the lovely village of Pitt; horrid Eastleigh; Jane gets her Guide badge.

Dad appears to be developing a network of entomological friends as Gran sometimes mentions that moths or larvae have been sent to him by post.  For instance, on the 22nd March:

An Engrailed moth emerged in one of Barry’s breeding cages early tonight but up to the time of writing the wings had not expanded. The chrysalis was sent, among others, by an entomologist friend in the north.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 14)

Brusher Mills and a black Adder; update on “old Major”; a day full of beauty; Winnall Moors and “poor old Thumper”.

More work in the Sparrow’s Hedge garden next day, March 3rd 1948, when Gran is:

…setting out Early Midlothian potatoes for sprouting, sitting alone in the sunshine with only the sound of hens scratching round me…”

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 13)

Battling brambles; hungry children; Lou Meadon; skating on Cranbury Lake; hypnosis in the stoat world and get your hair cut during the waxing moon.

This afternoon [February 15th 1948] saw me away to the daffodil wood at Chilworth but unfortunately several others had reached the spot also. I really only went to see how they were progressing but the place is getting so well-known that I realised if I wanted any I must pick them today in bud. They open very successfully in water but I wanted to see them open in the woods. By that time I’m afraid there will be none left so I picked a few for myself and some to send to Kingston.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 12)

A love of England; a hatred of cats; Snowdrops; a bonfire; Compton Church on the wireless; Charlotte Yonge; Gilbert Whitley; and a hedgehog in the bed!

Gran writes on January 7th 1948 that a Fox had been busy in the neighbourhood:

…and last night a local smallholder was robbed of nine laying ducks. Proof of the identity of the thief lay in the discovery of three bodies with their heads bitten off.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 11)

A rare bird in the Forest and a new one on the coast; prowlers in the garden; no more Red Squirrels, chestnut gatherers and Ampfield lovlier than ever.

On October 7th 1947 Gran copies four pages of Ruskin’s positive views on the human character of the love of nature. She follows this with: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 9)

Another visit to Kingston upon Thames; approval for  the Winchester by-pass; war-time house-sharing; a rare plant appears in the garden and harvest festival celebrated at Compton Church.

On the 21st, there is a description of the autumnal bird movements and also of the colourful shrubs around Hursley at that time of year. Spindle is Gran’s favourite shrub, the fruits “just becoming that lovely shade of rose”. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 8)

She never met William Rufus, but remembered House Sparrows in numbers, a doodlebug lifting her roof and could hear the ocean liners as they left the docks.

Gran spends August 4th 1947, at Romsey Horse Show.  There is no mention of how she got there nor of her company, but they found Broadlands, where the show was held, delightful when they walked around it during the interval.  And they made a visit to Pepperbox Hill that day too, returning “towards dusk as the sparrows were chattering in the hedges and the crickets chirping”.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 7)

Orchids in Beattie’s Field; High Brown Fritillaries; flowers of Southampton’s bombed sites and a squawking Nightjar chick!

Gran has made a few visits to the Punchbowl area on the Petersfield Road lately, looking for orchids and other wild flowers. When describing her finds, she always uses the plants’ scientific names – but many of them are well out of date today. For instance, she finds Habenaria conopsea, which must be Fragrant orchid – a plant now recognised as three separate species, and with a different Generic name. When at the Punchbowl, she:

…resented the arrival of noisy, chattering people on motorbikes who were apparently quite unaware of the beauty of sight and sound all round them, which they had so rudely disturbed.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 6)

It’s the summer of 1947 – nesting birds, butterflies on the wing and flowering plants – and there are recollections of the Hiltingbury youth.

On May 22 1947, Gran notes Lithospermum purpureo-caeruleum (creeping gromwell) in the garden but, she says, “as this is a rarity I am waiting to verify my identification”.

Presently, the front garden of The Ridge has a large patch of this lovely blue-flowered plant, which was introduced  from a small piece collected at Cheddar in 1967, so Gran’s earlier record of it is something of a mystery – though it was surely a garden escape from somewhere nearby. Dad tells me, “It is now a confounded nuisance, its long tough, slender rhizomes getting under paving slabs and amongst other plants, and producing flowering shoots in unwelcome places”. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 5)

Gran records several bird species now lost as breeders in Chandler’s Ford – Hawfinch, Wryneck, Red-backed Shrike and Nightjar.

The last day of April and the first of May 1947 give the first hint that I have found of Gran’s constant bitter sadness, which apparently underlies all her writing: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 4)

Signs of spring excite Gran but she is worried by news of pending development of her beloved woods.

Gran notes Salix caprea (goat willow) catkins open on March 15th, and a male Early Moth coming to light at a bedroom window the day before this. On the 16th:

The speckled Wood butterfly which I brought home from the greenhouse on March 5th was today spreading its wings to the sun in the dining room.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 3)